Seriously, I think we can put to rest the question of whether Mark Richt shaped the size of this past signing class with an eye towards 2013. The answer is yes, he did.

… The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Ramsey said he decided to enroll early after hearing that several other 2013 commitments were planning to arrive in January, including running back Derrick Henry and receiver Tramel Terry.

“Coach Richt and coach (Mike) Bobo asked me and I just felt like I needed to also because I wanted to get there and have an easy transition into football, have a chance at early playing time,” said Ramsey, who recruiters from Ohio State and North Carolina still checked on last week. “It would be better if I got there and played in the spring with the team and got in the books early.”

Georgia could have up to seven early enrollees this winter, recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner said, which means the Bulldogs could sign about 30 in its next recruiting class after signing only 19 in February, he said.

“As long as you’ve got room with the guys that graduate under the cap, you can bring them in,” Garner said. “You can count back to a number and then you can start counting forward. If you do it the right way and get all the right guys, you can do that.” [Emphasis added.]

There are a lot of little things going differently with the program these days. We may look back in a few years, add them all up and break the Richt era up into two pieces, one that ended after the 2009 season, and the one that followed. It’s too early to tell, of course, but it’s something to keep an eye on over the next couple of seasons.

21 responses to “Georgia’s got a plan?”

Senator, as usual. you have it figured out & explained, Right On.
This Old Dawg thought the first 9 years were pretty good .
If It is going to get better than that, then all bets are off because that would be terrific (& somewhat unbelievable)..

Most people that follow recruiting agree that the 2013 prospects is far deeper and talent than the 2012 group especially when it comes to the state of Georgia. The Dawgs will have to go thru a numbers bottleneck this year but could sign 31 players for 2013 which would be 36% of your total allotted scholarships.

They may have a plan now but there’s no doubt they’re making up for previous shortcomings in signing classes. We’ll have a talented but very young class that will again leave us with major depth and experience problem 4 years from now

Dang! The Senator lays it out with quotes to enforce the idea and darned if a couple didn’t still miss the point.

The point is that what’s been wrong is fan perception. Now that you see some recruiting was planned as back-counting(not all because we missed two that were planned on signing day), it should stop the “didn’t recruit enough” , “coaches can’t count” imbecilic drivel spouted by some, but darned if some just can’t read and understand when it is laid out. Unless, of course, as proof of your fandom some of you want to keep up the dead old recruiting meme.

Now the malcontents will point forward to a few years claiming depth problems totally ignoring the early graduates, transfers and possible dismissals. I do not say transfers and possible dismissals in any pejorative way. They are an inevitable part of any moderately successful program imo. I think this will help us to fulfill and maintain as close to 85 scholarships as possible without oversigning.

I say: now, we cookin! and, I really like the plan. I think we’ve been stirring the stew a bit here and there, as I think periodic adjustments are part of the very best plans; but, I also think we are now beginning to see some results of a more aggressive recruiting and team management plan. I think coach Richt saw a need for a direction change and took the strong steps indicated to him

I didn’t see anything in the article that indicated there is any ‘plan’. There’s an inference from CMR saying “it could be a pretty healthy size”. Weiser speculates as many as 7 could enroll early. The whole article is a mish-mash of common knowledge, speculation, and pasted together comments. We could have had much higher numbers in February – weren’t there something like 8 recruits we sent LOI’s to who signed with other schools? Having said all that, I hope we do sign 30+ recruits. How many seasons have we had multiple openings on the 85 man roster? A plan is long overdue.

Your not knowing about the plan doesn’t mean Richt hasn’t had one. And no one wants to hear about the reality of players going to another school on signing day. It embarrassed too many that claimed they had the inside scoop on who was joining us. No, Senator, it’s best to put those numbers into the “Richt doesn’t know how to recruit nor count” basket of the naysayers. After all, they are running out of issues to be consigned to their year of dissonance. And they never seem to grasp reality. Looks like they will dislike another good year.

As I recall Young, Patterson, Tomlinson, Greene, Williams, Whitehead and Redmond all had UGA NOI’s in front of them on signing day, but chose other schools. It’s defintely 5 or more, but maybe not as many as 8. FWIW, I’m happy with the talent we recruited. Not happy at all leaving so many schollys on the table.

I think signing 30 is going to be tough. Once we get to something like 5 verbals for a position like DB, I think it’s hard to get even more to sign on.

4 periods to the Richt phase:
1) From FSU exit to 2005 SEC Championship
2) From West Virginia debacle to Martinez’s firing
3) Martinez firing to Bobo & Gardner firings (whenever they happen). This phase includes, critically, the firing of Van Halanger, and the fortuitous night of Damon’s panty raid
4) From the end of the “he’s a bulldog, we’ll put him on the staff” hires forward